Martin Truex Jr. clarifies Phoenix gameplan in absence of crew chief Cole Pearn
Todd Berrier will sit atop Furniture Row Racing's pit box for Sunday's Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, but he won't technically be the team's crew chief in the absence of suspended Cole Pearn.
"Todd's not the crew chief this weekend. He's not labeled as the crew chief. He's going to help call the race, sit on the box, make sure everything's going smoothly, kind of be the middle guy, I guess, between Cole and the rest of the guys," Truex said during Wednesday's Goodyear tire test at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "They can talk on the computer and chat and all that stuff. Since Todd is technically not our crew chief, I'm not sure how much he'll be around our garage during the weekend or what's going to happen with that. I'm going to play it by ear and let them figure it out."
Furniture Row announced Tuesday that it had withdrawn its appeal of the suspension on Pearn, who was allowed to work last weekend's event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway while the appeal was pending. NASCAR announced March 2 that Pearn would be suspended for one race and fined $50,000, and that Truex and the team stripped of 15 driver and owner points, respectively, for a roof-flap violation discovered in pre-race inspection at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"I thought it was really important to have him there for a lot of reasons," Truex said. "Obviously, the test day and just being that it's a mile-and-a-half (track) that's pretty tricky and what we do there -- the things we learn and the things we work through and figure out there -- really lead into California (Auto Club Speedway) and places like that. So there was a lot to learn.
"There was a lot of stuff to go through, and I feel like Phoenix is a lot more straightforward of a race weekend. There's not quite as much to learn. You go there and feel like you're close, hopefully, and then you kind of tweak on it from there. There's just so much that can be learned on those big tracks -- especially when you get a test day -- that it was huge to have him at Vegas."
"I think we've got a really strong team and I think we're prepared for this weekend not having Cole in the garage or on the pit box on Sunday," said Truex, who has finished second, seventh and 11th, respectively, in the first three races of 2016. "We really appreciate Todd offering to help us out and call the race on Sunday.
"He's a familiar voice on the radio, we spent a year or year and a half working together, and I think he'll do a good job calling the race for us. Really, it's all about preparation, and Cole's got the team prepared and we've got a good plan in place to make sure we do all the right things throughout the weekend. So we'll just see how it goes, but all in all I don't think it'll be a huge deal."
